Swallowing gum: Is it harmful?

Is it right that gum sits in your stomach for seven years?

Although chewing gum is designed to be chewed and not swallowed, it generally isn’t harmful if swallowed. Folklore suggests that swallowed gum sits in your stomach for seven years before it can be digested. But this isn’t true. If you swallow gum, it’s true that your body can’t digest it. But the gum doesn’t stay in your stomach. It moves relatively intact through your digestive system and is excreted in your stool.

On rare occasions, large amounts of swallowed gum combined with constipation have blocked intestines in children. It’s for this reason that frequent swallowing of chewing gum should be discouraged, especially in children.

What happen if you swallow gum?

Although it’s not recommended, if you accidently swallow a piece of gum you’re chewing, you have little to worry about. Your body can’t digest gum, but a piece of swallowed gum will usually pass through your digestive system — basically intact — and come out in your stool about 40 hours later, just like almost everything else you eat.

If you swallow large quantities of gum in a short period of time, however, it could potentially cause a block in your intestines.

Should i go to doctor if i swallow gum?

If you swallow a piece of gum, there’s probably no reason to see a doctor. It should pass normally through your digestive tract.

If you swallow a large amount of gum or if you swallow gum with other indigestible objects, that might cause a blockage. This could require surgery to remove it from your digestive tract.

The symptoms of a blockage typically include abdominal pain and constipation, sometimes accompanied by vomiting. If you think you have an intestinal blockage, see your doctor.

What’s gum made of?

Originally, chewing gum was made from the latex sap chilcol of the sapodilla tree or other tree saps. For many years, gum base was made from chicle which was the chief ingredient in chewing gum. Today many modern chewing gums use rubber instead of chicle. In the middle 1900s, chemists learned to make synthetic rubber, which became a substitute for most natural rubber in chewing gums. Most gums are made from a synthetic rubber, or a mixture of artificial and natural bases.

Softeners are added to retain moisture. The most popular softeners are glycerin or vegetable oil based. Those ingredients are used to help prevent the gum from becoming hard or to stark.

Sweeteners are added to gum to give it that sweet flavor. Those ingredients are usually sugar, corn syrup and even beet juice. Sugar is probably the healthiest off all sweeteners. There are many synthetic sweeteners, but the most used are Xylitol, sorbitol, mannitol and aspartame are also used.

A flavor ingredient in chewing gum has been found to provide long lasting, high intensity and high quality flavor. The flavorings are added last. The most used flavors in chewing gums are: peppermint (called only mint), fruit, spearmint (a variation of mint flavor), menthol (a mint related flavor). Other flavors are synthetically created and perfected in the lab.

Gum bases are mixed with other ingredients to make chewing gum.

Bubble gum contains more of the gum base and softener.

What exactly are the ingredients in the chewing gum depend on the type of gum being made.